Ratepayers and Community Intervenors are elected officials, organizations, and concerned citizens who have concerns about the Cayuga and Dunkirk "repwowering" proposals being considered by New York's Public Service Commission - proposals that will have economic and environmental impacts to a 24 county region in central and western New York. (Regions A and C on the map above) We invite you to join our efforts.

New York’s Public Service Commission is poised to make a decision regarding the future of two 50 year-old, non-profitable, coal-burning power plants – one in central and one in western NY. It is up to the PSC to decide whether to shut down these power plants or convert them to burn "natural" gas. The cost to convert the 2 plants could be over $500,000 million each, to be paid by residents and businesses in the power districts A and C. The conversion to burn gas would involve building new gas pipelines as well. Neither of these plants is needed for daily power supply; they will be used for merely 600 hours per year when electric demand is at its peak.

NYSEG and National Grid, the electric suppliers for the central and western NY region, say that there is no need to convert the plants - that instead transmission line upgrades will suffice to meet the region’s energy reliability needs, at one-fifth of the cost. The Business Council of New York, along with Sierra Club and Earthjustice, agree with proposals to upgrade the transmission lines since this option is presumed to be less costly and to have less detrimental environmental impacts

Why do we say “presumed”? Because the documents the Public Service Commission has provided for public review are so redacted that the environmental and economic impacts are completely obscured.

Due to our concerns about the lack of transparency in this public process, and to ensure that the PSC adheres to its mandate to protect the ratepayer and consider the full environmental impact, we have formed the “Ratepayer and Community Intervenor” group, and secured pro-bono legal representation by Earthjustice. We will soon be initiating legal action to demand unredacted information for review and analysis.

"The Ratepayer and Community Intervenors represent the interests of individual ratepayers as well as local community residents and groups who are concerned about the lack of unredacted public access to crucial documentation in this proceeding and the potential rate and environmental impacts of the repowering proposals. Participation by the Ratepayer and Community Intervenors will serve the public interest and assist in development of a complete record by advocating for unredacted public disclosure of all relevant submissions in this proceeding and by providing evaluation, analysis and input on the economic and environmental issues in this proceeding from the perspective of the ratepayers and local residents who will bear the rate and environmental impacts of the repowering proposals."